Google Glass to get Android KitKat update next week for better battery, gallery and more

Google has announced that Glass will be getting an Android KitKat update later this week. The major update announcement comes today as Glass goes on sale to the public for one day only. If you've got $1500 get over to Google for a chance to be a Glass owner.

For those with Glass, or planning to buy it, KitKat is coming. With it comes a selection of updates including a very important battery life improvement. This also "makes Google Glass more reliable and easier to update in future", says Google.

Photos are now organised into bundles so more can be seen with fewer swipes. Photo replies have been added to Hangouts to make photo sharing easier and quicker. But video calling has been axed.

Google says: "We hold ourselves to high standards for the features that we build, and video calls aren’t living up to these standards. Explorers have told us so directly, and fewer than 10 per cent of them use video calls. For this reason, we’ve made the hard decision to remove video calls from Glass until the experience is better."

Luckily that could be soon as feedback has been improved too. Now a tap on the device info card in Settings will allow users to send feedback. Email, call and post feedback are also still options.

Voice commands have been improved, says Google: "When you tap or say 'ok glass,' voice commands are now sorted by recency and frequency, making it easier to see the commands you use most often and faster to access them from the touch menu."

More updates are included that Google hasn't mentioned, we'd expect mainly for Explorers and developers.

Luke has been touching up tech, and writing, for over a decade across FHM, Stuff, T3 and Shortlist to name a few. With an MA and NCTJs in journalism and an unquenchable love of gadgets, no tech escapes his digits. If you notice comic book, film and adventure sport references in his copy, don't fret, he's obsessed with those too.